Digital Deja Vu

Wizards of the Coast (WOTC) releases a new edition of Dungeons & Dragons, making radical changes to the game.  They also prominently announce upcoming suite of digital tools that will make your life easier.  Quick question, what year am I talking about?

1. 1974
2. 1977
3. 1989
4. 2000
5. 2003
6. 2008

If you chose number four, you would be correct.  It seems like ancient history now, but when D&D Third Edition came out, every copy of the Player's Handbook came with a CD-ROM containing a sample Character Generator.  This Character Generator was only a preview for the soon to be released Master Tools!

Master Tools would not just be a character generator, but a comprehensive suite of digital software including a character and monster generator, a 3D map-making tool, and much more.  Like many DM's running a game at the time, I eagerly awaited these time-saving digital aids.

I ended up waiting quite awhile.  What I didn't know at the time, is that Fluid Entertainment, the company hired to create the original Master Tools, was running into bureaucratic red tape.  Basically, the contract lawyers at WOTC became concerned that the 3D map-making tools Fluid was putting into Master Tools would violate the exclusive contract that Bioware had in developing D&D video games.  So Fluid was forced to gut its own product.

This product eventually debuted at Gen Con 2002 as the E-Tools: Character and Monster Generator.  The reason for the "Character and Monster Generator" after the colon was that it was supposed to be the first in a set of E-Tools products.  Those never materialized.  Even worse, the product was substandard.  Fluid Entertainment seemed to have lost its taste for deal and WOTC was left with a bit of a lemon on its hands.

Knowing they had to do something for disappointed fans, WOTC saw a quick fix solution when they were approached by several individuals from the Open Source PCGEN project, looking to gain some legitimacy.  At the time PCGEN contained home-brewed data sets that contained comprehensive information about all the game books WOTC published.  The legality of including WOTC copyrighted data, even in a free open source character generator, was questionable.

So when WOTC and the heads of the PCGEN open source project struck a deal.  They would be allowed to legally sell data sets containing WOTC material.  But part of the deal was that they had to fix the extremely buggy E-Tools and support it for a period of time.  These individuals formed a new company called Code Monkey Publishing (now separate from the PCGEN project). 

Meanwhile, WOTC washed their hands of the fiasco.  While they maintained approval rights for the data sets Code Monkey Publishing created for E-Tools and PCGEN, they didn't seem to do much to support their "partner".  References to E-Tools on the Wizards website completely ceased.  It became obvious that they had given up on an "official" set of digital tools to support 3rd Edition D&D.

Fast-Forward to 2007.  WOTC announces the upcoming 4th Edition D&D will include a suite of digital tools that will make your life easier!  At this point I was hopeful that they had learned from the mistakes of the past.  In fact, all indications seemed to be that D&D Insider would be ready on launch! We saw previews of the Character Visualizer, Character Builder, Game Table, and Compendium. When June 6th came, I anxiously awaited to see what would be available to try out.

Well, we know how that turned out.  As of this writing, one month after the launch of D&D 4th Ed, only the D&D Compendium is available.  Since that is essentially a simple keyword search tool, it doesn't impress me that much.

I still maintain hope that D&D Insider live up to its promise.  I am a both a tech geek and a D&D geek, and I am always looking for ways to use digital tools to enhance my gaming experience.  I would love an accurate character generator to help some of the more casual gamers in my gaming group create and maintain their characters.  Because of time constraints and distance, my gaming group is often forced to game remotely, something a well done electronic game table would help with immensely.

I am the guy WOTC should be marketing D&D Insider to!

But I fear that DDI may become another embarrassment to be forgotten, shoved under the rug, and ignored until they decide to make a D&D 5th Ed.

PCGen vs Vista: An Epic Battle

There have been many great battles over the ages.  The 300 Spartans standing against the armies of Persia.  The defeat of the Spanish Armada by the English in 1588.  Napoleon's crushing defeat at the Battle of Waterloo.

Well, gather round friends because I have a tale to tell.  A tale of hardship, loss, and eventual triumph in the face of adversity.

Like many such events it begins simply enough.  A young man (well perhaps not so young) purchased a laptop.  It was shiny and new, and was bedecked in the latest version of the Windows Operating System, named Vista, to invoke the beautiful panoramic scenes you might find in a secluded glen or after climbing a mountain.  The latter proved especially apt, for you will see a mountain was to be climbed!

When the man went to transfer his files and applications over, one of the first was the program PCGen as it was needed later that day.  PCGen was downloaded and installed.  At first all seemed well.  A simple double-click and the program ran much as it had on Vista's predecessor.  The man then went to the reclusive Code Monkeys to install the data sets needed for the campaign that evening.  That is when Vista decided to wreak a terrible vengeance! 

The monkeys' data had come zipped up for ease of transport.  However, when the man attempted to unzip the sets something most unusual occurred.  Whereas the operating system know as XP had always unzipped these in a minute or less, tricky Vista projected well over an hour to accomplish the task.  Curious, the man decided to let it run.  To his surprise Vista was telling him no lie as it took an hour and a half for it to complete its labors.

Perplexed, the man decided there had to be an easier way for the remaining data sets.  He searched far and wide, and was rewarded with the open source program 7-Zip.  7-Zip accomplished the task that took Vista an hour and a half in less than a minute.  The man smiled, figuring his trials were over.  Little did he know, they were just beginning.

It should be known that for him to truly use the data provided by the monkeys the man needed to make some slight modifications to the sets.  After all, it is well known that monkeys are sometimes useful they are not always accurate.  The man navigated to the PCGen Directory, and from there to the location where the data was stored.  When he opened up the data with humble notepad, he was asked to confirm his right as administrator to modify the data.  The man gladly did so, and made the changes required.

He then launched PCGen and was quite astonished to find that the changes he made had not been reflected.  Figuring that Vista had merely prevented him from saving the changes, he went back to check them out.  Imagine his amazement to find that the data file had been changed, but that PCGen had been befuddled not to see them!

Clearly Vista was a trickier opponent then the man had given it credit for.  But the man did not lose heart for he had been schooled in the ways of Vista's master.  Thinking back, he remembered that Vista was capable of maintaining Shadow Copies of its files.  Perhaps it was using this aptly named ability to keep PCGen in the dark?

Although tricky, the man realized that Shadow Copies could be easily defeated with a simple right-click!  Eagerly the man attempted this solution... for naught.  The interface was not there!  A dark foreboding fell over the man.  His fears were quickly confirmed: Since his Vista was known as Home Premium, power over the Shadow Copies was denied to him!

Vista was proving to be a worthy foe.  The man had heard of its abilities to confound users and lower productivity, but clearly it's aptitude had exceeded his wildest imaginings.  Still, the man refused to lose hope.  Surely others had encountered the devious power of Vista's Shadow Copies before?  The man researched the problem, tracking down every scrap of information no matter how obscure.  Finally, he stumbled upon a page with the knowledge he sought!  Here was the hiding spot of the Shadow Copies laid bare.  With a decisive [Delete] the Shadow Copies were vanquished and the man was left free to use PCGen in the manner he desired.

Quite a tale, eh?  Alas, it is not over yet.  For though the man one the battle, the war rages on.  Vista knows time is on its side.  Someday soon, the man will stumble into one of its traps, and this time it will not let itself be undone so easily.